I want some coffee!

... in A Dog House on Wheels . Roasting took a hit starting in 2009 when we got our first RV. We were reduced to buying roasted beans form Starbucks (Verona, either regular or decaf,  is still a great choice!). After traveling all summer we would head back to Santa Fe in the early fall and I'd get back to roasting. And I'd make sure we had some extra when we started out the next season. I don't roast while I'm on the road- power is always limited and roasters use a lot of it. There are purists that roast their beans in a cast iron skillet over a fire but I just don't have that skill level. Besides, it's so easy to get Verona! After we got a lifetime lease for an RV lot in an RV park in southeast Arizona ( SKP Saguaro Co-op ) in 2013, we found we spent less and less time in Santa Fe. So we decided to sell the Santa Fe house and commit to having only our RV as our only home in Benson. The 5th wheel went away in favor of a 'destination trailer' (closer to a...

... and I'd only just started. That first fluid-bed roaster was a great intro to roasting. But it was noisey! The beans crashed around inside the roasting chamber and made a terrible racket. That bean noise masked the sounds the roasting beans make that the person roasting needs to hear to track roast progress. After a few months I learned a guy named Ron Kyle (he started RK Drums ) was finding homes for his first prototype lot of coffee roasting drums. Those first few were something like $80, but I missed that by a few days and got one from the first production lot for $120 (#105 as I recall). I had to supply a propane BBQ and a motorized spit. But we were into freezing weather so I dragged my feet after ordering the drum. Before I could roast the first batch of greens, Ron sent me a note and asked if I was interested in an industrial spit drive motor since most BBQ spit motors weren't up to the job for 4-5 lbs of green beans and they ran at the wrong speed (too slow). I said...

... began in San Francisco. Roasting started for me in late 2003 when I wanted to try my hand at pulling espresso shots. We'd become addicted to cafe con leche while in Key West and wanted to be able to make our own. We had just bought the Santa Fe house and were back in San Francisco for a couple weeks to gather up the basics to bring with us plus get the movers loaded. A quick look at the local Safeway on Noriega made it clear a bag of beans labeled "Espresso" wasn't to be had. I already knew about Sweet Maria's across the Bay in Oakland- that's where I'd bought the coffee grinder. So I already knew that they were a supplier of green coffee beans. I found a cheap fluid bed (hot air) roaster for something like $75. And green beans were a bargain compared to a can of Yuban. "Wow! This was going to save a bunch of money!" Yeah, right. I ordered the roaster and a sample of greens. The new espresso machine (a Giotto which looked similar to this ne...